Eco-Roamer - F650 based Expedition Vehicle

Well, after 2 years of planning, sketching and shopping I'm very happy to announce that our expedition vehicle is finally under way!

We are calling the project ECO-ROAMER and the intention is to build it in as environmentally friendly a manner as a diesel-belching-round-the-world-20,000-pound-truck can be...

I have taken great inspiration and learning from everyone here at ExPo, so I'm delighted that over the next several months we'll finally be able to contribute back to the community and share our build-up as it progresses.

First a few details:

THE TRUCK:
This was the probably the hardest part. We had some fundamental requirements that limited the choices:

4x4 - obviously

crew cab - 2 kids!

diesel

global service network

big enough to handle a 'big' camper body

available in the USA for the build

comfortable for HOURS of highway driving

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This eliminated several popular choices:

Mitsu FG - Too Small

Toyota Hino - Crew cab 4x4 only avail in Australia

MAN - Not avail in USA

Mog - Not ideal for highway cruising & crew cab limitations

GM Topkick 5500 - Duramax Not globally serviceable

Ford F550 - Engine not serviceable

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Which basically left the International, and the Ford F-650.

International has a good dealer network, but we felt that CAT has an even broader parts/service network, and so we leaned towards the F-650 with the CAT C-7 engine and Allison 6-spd transmission. Both trucks can have the same Meritor axles, the same 2-piece wheels, the same MPT81 tyres, and similar load ratings.

Finally, we hit the ULSD diesel emissions challenge, so we decided to buy a pre-emissions control 2007 or earlier truck. Finding a 'slightly used' one that matched all our criteria proved to be very difficult until we found a crazy F-650 pickup with 3,000 miles and a distressed owner in need of selling.

We bought the truck, and will remove and sell the pick-up bed.

Since it's a 2007 there should be no problem running it off 'mostly' Bio-Diesel, where available. (i.e. North America & Western Europe)

Here is what the truck looks like so far...
The bull bar was just built by Layne Wright at Denver Offroad Bumpers. He did an amazing job designing and hand crafting it all out of very light weight (and recycled) aluminum. It's being powder coated black now. I'd STRONGLY recommend Layne to anyone!

The truck is on its way now to Tulsa Truck Manufacturing where Ron Turner and his guys are going to do the 4x4 conversion and stretch out / reinforce the frame.

THE CAMPER:

Over the past couple of years we looked at dozens of possible solutions for the camper. In the end we eliminated going with an off-the-shelf camper body like Doug Hackney's (very nice) unit. Most were too small, and there were too many unique things we wanted.

That took us down to a short list of three custom manufacturers:

Unicat - Extremely helpful, but also very expensive and rigid in their designs

PonyXpress - Just sold, too unresponsive

StarTracks - Very willing to work with our designs & based in the USA which keeps costs low compared to shipping the truck back and forth to Germany.

We're still working on the details of the design and have had some great ideas & revisions so far. The current design looks like it will be 17ft long, plus 2 single beds for the kids above the cab.

The current plan looks something like this:

Here's a 3D view of the interior that gives a better sense of how it fits together:

The dinette lowers to a double bed for guests, and there is a queen bed for us that lowers from ceiling above the dinette.

On one hand 17ft BEHIND a crew cab feels like it's going to be a huge vehicle with a turning circle the size of a football field. On the other hand, 17ft is not a whole lot of space to plan out for full-time living space for two parents & two kids!

"ECO" COMPONENTS:

As I mentioned, we're trying to build the vehicle in as 'friendly' a way as possible. There are a ton of elements we've built in to the design from that perspective, but some of the highlights include:

Camper Shell - Made from Alucobond - 80% recycled aluminum composite

Solar Panels - 1.8KW of solar power on the roof

Cabinetry - All made from Bamboo, not "wood"

Counters - Made from Richlite recycled paper board composites

Flooring - Laminate mounted to recycled composite boards, not plywood

Sewage - Diesel fired incinerator to avoid dumping our waste around the world

Insulation - Very substantial to reduce heating/air-con power usage

Lighting - MR16 converted lights to low-power LED arrays

Fuel - No propane on board, everything can run off the bio-diesel (or regular diesel if necessary) and/or solar / generator.

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Stay tuned for more pics and details over the coming months...

Congratulations.
What is the GVW of your chassis? My guess is that fully loaded "wet", with tools, parts, food, people etc. you'll be at 25-30K lb.
What tires are you going to run? My personal choice with duals would be 13R22.5 XZLs. If you are going to try to run single MPT81s I believe their largest load capacity is 152K (7100kg/15620 lb per axle), insufficient IMHO for you. You'll need 365-395/85R20 or 425-445/65R22.5 for singles in the rear.
Are you going to construct the camper yourself, or have someone build the shell and finish it?

The equivalent size MPT81 has 50% more load, albeit at a higher pressure. I don't have a set of 365 XZLs to compare to the MPT81's. I personally prefer MPT81's as they run silent and dead straight, XZL's can be hard to balance and a 200+ pound tire shakes the whole truck when it wobbles (use beads or something made a huge difference for me). XZLs have one huge advantage in that they can run with or without tubes and are good in mud where MPT81's are not so good.

It's hard to pick, they are both great tires. Sticking with 22.5 inch semi type rims is a good call, you can get tires all over the world in one form or another. 20 inch tires (mog tires) can be very difficult to get.

Addited: When I first read this I somehow assumed you were going to be building them for production. If it's just for private use, the above may be N/A.

WRT other ideas, I like the Class Bs that have swivel seats that are used as the dinette, like RoadTrek did. However, with two kids I think the single table would be a pain. My kids are going to be in boosters for the next few years, so it's not practical for them to use the front seats during meals. When it comes meal time, I think it would be better if the front two swiveled to face the rear two, then have a small tables on each side. Kind of like two, two-person dinettes. That way the hallway is open so that the parents can come and go from the front seats. You could always have a fold-up section in the middle, if you wanted to, that would convert the two small tables to one wall-to-wall one.